Newsletter

Harper: Ethics of a wild hog

They’re back. Members of the Georgia General Assembly are in the process of returning to Atlanta for another 40 business days of legislating and governing. And, as it has been every year since 1962, the unofficial beginning to the legislative session will be the Wild Hog Supper at the Georgia Freight Depot.

The event is sponsored by the Georgia Friends of Agriculture trade association and the $20 tickets sold to the event support the Georgia Food Bank Association.

The event is symbolic in that the only knives out are those to slice pulled pork. Those who will be adversaries the following morning gather in one room to eat barbecue, roasted corn, peach ice cream and other Georgia-grown goodies. The event is quite open and accessible to all.

Most of Georgia’s statewide elected officials, members of the congressional delegation, members of the General Assembly and many local officials work the crowd. Alongside them are voters of all stripes, party activists and leaders — and of course, lobbyists.

But lobbyists are generally not in the spotlight. Quite the contrary, of all the events in which officials take part in each season, it remains one of the most open and transparent of them.

Any event with this many decision-makers also draws the press, as news crews from across the state have an opportunity to get live interviews from a large number of officials all in one setup. And with the open media opportunity, there are always bound to be some who want to crash the party.

A group calling itself “United for the People Georgia” plans to protest the event, saying the tradition “is symbolic in that lobbyists and legislators openly engorge together on pork. For a government by and for the people, the influence of money in politics must be eliminated.”

Images of elected officials meeting with the public over supper — a very Southern symbol in itself — can be construed by the mere mention of a protest that somehow it is “us” watching “them.”

“Them” will be painted as those who are having a private party, making closed-door deals.

There will be a lot of talk about ethics this session. Hopefully, there will also be some action — and not just more window dressing. But it is important to keep things in perspective.

Ethics reform is not about trying to punish everyone who is part of our representative government because we suspect that they’re all up to no good. It is about adopting processes to ensure that governing is open, transparent and does not favor those on the inside.

The Wild Hog Supper is not a symbol of lobbyists and legislators openly gorging themselves on pork. It’s a well-known secret that most of the legislators don’t have time to eat there. That’s because they’re talking to those of “us” who take the time to visit with them, tell them our concerns and ask what we can expect in the next 40 days.

It’s important that in our quest for substantive ethics reform, we remember what it is about this system that we’re trying to save.

Opportunities for individuals to meet and greet their elected officials should be high on that list.

Charlie Harper lives in Atlanta and edits the Peach Pundit political blog.